


The Language(s) of Love

by MashiarasDream



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5 Love Languages, AU, Communication Issues, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Misunderstandings, POV Dean, happy end, some angsting because Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 11:40:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20965958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MashiarasDream/pseuds/MashiarasDream
Summary: Cas is a businessman who shows love via gifts and needs clear words of affirmation to understand he is loved. Dean is a mechanic who is not good at talking, shows love via acts of service and feels loved via quality time. With love languages so at odds, the developing depth of their feelings for each other threatens to get lost in translation.





	The Language(s) of Love

_ Dean@Cas: Cas, we gotta talk. Skype me when you can.  _

Dean feels bad the moment he’s sent the text but at the same time, he knows this has to be done. He’s tried doing it when Cas was in town but - Dean sighs. He gets distracted. 

By the way Cas moans when he’s eating the food Dean has prepared for them.    
By the way his nimble hands touch Dean, firm and reassuring and gentle and reverent at the same time.    
By the way his back arches into Dean’s touch when it’s Dean’s turn to take him apart.   
By the way Cas’ blue eyes glaze over in bliss when he’s thoroughly done that. 

It is amazing. A revelation. Definitely the best sex Dean’s ever had. Possibly the best dates, too. And the way Dean’s heart soars at small stuff? Like when they’re out with Dean’s friends and Dean gets them a new round of beers and Cas catches his eyes over the crowd? Yeah, Dean’s not used to that. He’s had quite a bit of ribbing to endure from his friends already, cause they’re not used to it, either. They know Dean’s an easy flirt but the kind of heart-eyes and mooning that have been going on lately? So not his style.

Because his style is not to get attached. Not to fall in love. To avoid the heartache by avoiding the situation altogether. Dean hadn’t been upset when Cas told him he was travelling for work, often and far. That he is an international businessman whose schedule is full of time constraints. That he’d never be able to be around much. 

In fact, in the beginning, Dean had seen it as a perk. Hot guy in a suit flying in from Singapore to Kansas for a few outstanding nights and then leaving again without expecting Dean to clean up his apartment and change his habits? Count him in. 

Only then, somewhere along the way, things had changed. Gradually at first. Dean had asked Cas for his Skype handle. He had his cell phone number of course, but Dean’s plan didn’t handle international calls. And Cas never really texted back more than one word answers when he wrote him. So he had asked for some face-time. Just for better planning, of course. 

Turns out that staying in touch with someone who’s changing time zones like other people change underwear is a logistical problem even when they agree to video calls. 

Cas had smiled when Dean brought it up and said _Thank you for waiting up for me today._ _I’m happy you’re so understanding and that you can accommodate my schedule short notice. But you don’t have to wait up for me tomorrow, I’ll be even further behind US time then._ There hadn’t been much else for Dean to do than to smile back and say _Yeah, no biggie, talk to you next week_. 

Kind of the same way he had not known what else to answer when Cas said,  _ You don’t have to bring me to the airport, I can make my own way. It’s too early for you to get up and the company pays for the Uber _ . That’s a logical argument, right? And Baby, beautiful as she is, is a bit of a gas-guzzler and the airport isn’t exactly close. 

Dean can see how none of these sentences, taken by themselves, seem problematic. Cas is considerate of Dean’s need for sleep and of his rather tight finances. 

Only, each and every one of these sentences had been a stab to Dean’s heart. He’d tried to tell Cas, too. That he liked doing things for him. Cooking dinner, driving him to the airport, staying up late to talk? These are small things in a big universe, but they show that he cares. 

And he cares. He really, really cares. Somewhere in the six months they’ve been seeing each other on and off as Cas’ schedule allows, Dean has stopped seeing this as a string of one-night-stands with the same person. Hell, he’s started referring to Cas as his boyfriend. Not where his friends can hear, obviously, because they’ll blab to Cas immediately, but when a stranger flirts with him at the bar? He’s gonna say,  _ I’m flattered man, but no. I’ve got a boyfriend at home.  _

Or in Indonesia. Or Taiwan. But a boyfriend, anyway. 

Who he’s not sure sees this the same way. Dean has tried figuring it out without asking directly. Has taken note of all the small details of Cas’ behaviour. Cas is so attentive, so concentrated on Dean, when he’s here, that it’s complicated, though. It’s complicated to try and stay impartial, to keep his brainpower up for analysing this. 

So the only times he actually gets around to that are all the times when Dean’s having a hard time and Cas is not. The few times he’d let Dean drive him to the airport, Cas had already been in business mode, planning his itinerary and his sales pitches in great detail. It had been Dean who waved a teary goodbye at the security check, while Cas went through the procedure with practiced ease. 

Which Dean gets. To a degree at least. Cas is in fact used to this. He has an apartment in town, but Dean’s seen the place. There is nothing personal there, it’s no more than a place for Cas to sleep in, just like the hotels are in Tokyo or Vienna. And he hardly sleeps there anyway, opting to stay with Dean or with his brother Gabriel when he’s here, optimizing his spare time between travel. It’s clear that he doesn’t put the same value on having a home that Dean does. Maybe because he didn’t have to work so hard for one as Dean had to, maybe because it really has little meaning to him. While Cas is kind and friendly with everyone he meets, he isn’t the sentimental type, as far as Dean can tell. 

Dean’s pretty sure by now that Cas sees relationships the same way: something, where he’s friendly and kind, but doesn’t get overly attached. And six months ago, that would have been good enough. Because Dean doesn’t doubt that Cas likes to spend time with him. Cas always brings some small trinket or some new food for them to try from his travels, kind little gestures that prove he thinks about Dean even when he simultaneously doesn’t find the time to actually talk to Dean. 

And when they’re together in person, Cas usually turns his phone off, and is as perfect company as anyone could wish. He says a lot of pretty things, too, like how handsome Dean looks, how much he likes Dean’s new shirt, how good the food tastes that Dean makes, and how much he enjoys their time together and their lovemaking. 

They’re not lies, either, Dean doesn’t think. Cas really enjoys their time together, or he’d have erased Dean from his schedule in favor of something more efficient already. Only - if their time spent together is so great, shouldn’t Cas try to maximize said time? Shouldn’t actions follow the pretty words? 

Dean sighs. 

If he’s honest, Cas confuses the hell out of him. 

Because there are moments, especially when Cas has a little more time, is here for a week or two instead of just two days, when Dean almost thinks - like that one time, when he woke up to find Cas already awake and staring at him with an expression that was -  _ longing _ is the only word Dean can find for it. But the moment was gone as quickly as it came, Cas’ expression back to his usual friendly smile before Dean was even completely awake, and then turning into something else entirely when Cas decided to wake Dean up the rest of the way with a good-morning-handjob. 

But every time, a day or two later, when Dean is just relaxing into their newfound peace and getting used to the feeling of not waking up alone, Cas leaves again, quietly and without any fuss. His flights are often early in the morning, and Dean has given up asking him about driving him to the airport. So some mornings, Dean will wake up, feeling cozy and pleasantly warm until the world comes back with a rush of emptiness when the other side of the bed is already cold. 

It’s been five days since that last happened. Five days which he knows were stressful for Cas, because of some business deal that was going to cover the whole South-East-Asian market. But the deal went through yesterday - Dean knows because he googled it and found the press-release - and he’s still not even gotten as much as a text from Cas. 

And that’s - that’s just not a thing that Dean can deal with anymore. It’s been the only feeling that’s been clear to him ever since he woke up this morning. He can’t do this anymore. 

The rest of it, he’s less clear about. Does he say,  _ hey Cas, it’s been fun while it lasted but this whole long-distance thing is not what I want _ and leave it at that? It’s a strategy to minimize his losses. Cas can’t reject him if he never comes clean about his feelings. 

He can almost feel both his brother and his best friend Charlie glare at him, but hey, it’s a strategy, alright? He doesn’t need his heart broken by a kind and attentive man, who just so happens to be able to rock Dean’s world without actually planning to or having feelings for Dean. 

He doesn’t get further in his thoughts because just then, the Skype melody starts up, his phone vibrating with it. 

Well, that was fast. Usually Cas takes longer to answer. Maybe he’s got a slow day because of the deal gone through. 

He steels himself with a long deep breath and picks up. 

If it’s a slow day, it’s still a travel day. Cas has headphones in, but the noise in the background is unmistakingly that of a busy airport. Cas’ hair is sticking up in all directions, like it’s been a while since he tried to tame it with a comb. His suit looks rumpled, too. 

“Did you sleep in your clothes?” Dean asks. 

“What? Oh,” Cas looks down at himself like he’s only just noticing the state he’s in. “I had an overnight flight for the first leg of the journey. Hello Dean.”

“Heya Cas,” Dean smiles back at him, smile turning out hesitant and insecure. 

Cas picks up on Dean’s mood apparently, because his own smile falls. “You wanted to talk?” 

“Um, yeah. If you can even talk. I mean, with all the people around you?” 

Cas looks around the crowded hall, then shrugs. “I’m on my way home. I’m in Amsterdam already, it’s safe to talk here.” 

That throws Dean, because all he had meant was could Cas concentrate on a talk with the noise level around him. But yeah, he guesses Cas visits a lot of countries where it is not necessarily safe to be gay or talk about gay things with your not-quite-boyfriend. 

“Your message sounded urgent. Did something happen?” Cas prompts when Dean doesn’t manage to get his brain in gear fast enough. 

“What? No. There’s no emergency or anything.”  _ I just fell in love with you and am pretty sure you’re not returning my feelings. _ Ugh. There is no way he can say that out loud. 

“I’m glad,” Cas answers, with a smile that seems to say  _ I care _ . Cas is not making this any easier. 

"Look, Cas, I figured some stuff out the other night and I kinda wanted to share before you got back."

"Oh," Cas says, smile wiped from his face. But there is no surprise there, either. 

" _ Oh _ ? What do you mean  _ oh _ ?" Dean asks, irritated that Cas is reacting before Dean even had the chance to say anything. 

“It’s just -,” Cas runs a distracted hand through his hair, almost losing one of his earbuds in the process. He fumbles to catch it and put it back in. “No, you know what? It’s alright. You’ve made yourself perfectly clear from the beginning. I’m surprised that it took this long.”

And now Dean is lost. “Took this long?” he repeats dumbly. “Cas, what the hell are you talking about?”

It’s Cas’ turn to frown. “About you telling me that I’ve overstayed my welcome?”

“That you’ve…” Dean huffs a quick burst of laughter. “Man, what the fresh hell?”

“Is that - not what you are telling me?” Cas asks, blinking like a confused owl. 

Dean groans and rubs a hand over his face, because one, he really doesn’t need Cas to be adorable right now, and two, he still doesn’t know whether he has the right words. "No, it's not. It's kind of the opposite actually." Though the effect might end up the same. “It’s not that you’re overstaying your welcome, it’s that you’re always, always leaving.”

Cas frowns harder at that. “I travel for work. You knew that.”

“Yes,” Dean nods, “I knew that. And I’m not saying change your life for me or anything, just - don’t walk out of my life in the middle of the night, dude. Not without me knowing whether you're going to reappear a day or a week later or never. I’m not good at that, Cas. I need something stable from you.”

"Because of your childhood," Cas states like that makes sudden sense to him. 

Dean's pretty sure he isn't completely off, either. It would be easy to nod and leave it at that. He's sure Cas would check in more often. Carve out some more time in his busy schedule to accommodate Dean. Only, Dean doesn't want to be a task to be accommodated. He wants Cas to want to spend time with him. 

So he shakes his head and gives Cas a slightly sad lopsided smile. "No, man. Or yes, but it really doesn't make that much of a difference."

Cas turns away for a moment, taking out one of his earpods to listen to something the announcer at the airport is saying. Then he puts the pod back in. "Not my flight yet," he says via quick explanation, before focusing back on Dean. "Here is something  _ I'm _ bad at, Dean. Reading between the lines. There's a reason I chose contract law as my specialty. I like every agreement to be spelt out in detail. I'm sorry if there's anything I misunderstood between us, but I fear if it's so you'll have to spell it out for me."

The words are supposed to sound crisp, possibly even harsh. And maybe it's that Cas is tired and his energy level doesn't fit the tone he wants to hit. Or maybe Dean is overanalyzing because he's known to do that, especially in any relationship where the other person means something to him. But to him, Cas sounds less like a lawyer spelling out the rule of the land and more anxious. 

Dean nods slowly, trying to figure out how to word this. “Look, I don’t know how much you know of that, but I’m aware that I have a reputation. And I’m like, not denying that. If someone is handsome and I’m free, I mean, why not. Long as you play it safe.”

It’s not the right words, Dean can see it, Cas’ face getting darker by the minute. Dean swallows heavily.

“I’m just saying, I’d get it. If that’s what you’re expecting. Dean, that’s the fun guy, who’s moderately good in the sack and will make you breakfast after instead of throwing you out. He’ll give you a nice light no-strings-attached thing.”

Cas opens his mouth as if to answer something angry but Dean holds up a hand to stop him. 

“Let me finish, please?”

Cas nods unhappily, the abruptness for once not due to the wifi connection. 

Dean takes a deep breath. “Six months ago, that was all true, too. I mean, look at you.” Dean gestures up and down the features visible on his tiny phone screen. “You’re kinda gorgeous and moderately good in the sack as well.” He smiles, making sure that Cas knows it’s a joke. Apart from one or the other small hiccup in the beginning, their chemistry in bed has been off the charts after all. “But, Cas, things have changed. I can’t do this anymore.”

Cas blinks. Then he shakes his head. “I don’t understand, Dean. I don’t know whether you’re telling me that I became too attached and being with me is no fun anymore or…”

“I fell in love with you, dummy,” Dean interrupts him because apparently Cas actually doesn’t get it without him saying it. “Didn’t you notice?” he continues a little softer when Cas just sits there stunned. 

“But you never said,” Cas stammers. 

Dean shrugs. “Kinda didn’t feel like it had to be said, y’know? Kinda thought it would be enough if I showed you. That your reaction would show me whether you felt the same way.” He grimaces. “Which is why I’m gathering you don’t.”

Silence engulfs them for a moment, the people in the background louder than even Cas’ breathing. Dean would take it as confirmation that Cas doesn’t feel what he feels, only there is this intense look of concentration on his face that doesn’t fit with it. 

“Wanting to drive me to the airport?” Cas hazards after another long moment. “You didn’t ask about that right after we met. And you didn’t make the fries from scratch, either.”

That makes Dean chuckle. “To be fair, I had no idea in the beginning how much you loved burgers and fries.” Then he turns serious again. “But yeah. I like you and I wanna be there for you, you know? And I can’t do it if you don’t let me.”

Cas nods quietly. “I never thought about it that way. My schedule has put people off before. I didn’t want to put that pressure on you. I know you need regular sleep and that you’re not a natural early riser.” He chews on his lip before he continues, “You really fell in love with me?”

Dean nods. He has nothing to lose anymore. “I did.” 

“Are you - sure?” 

“Cas.” Because that is one hell of a weird question. “What’s going on?”

“It’s just that - no one falls in love with me. At least not the people who I want to fall in love with me.”

“Does that mean you want me to be in love with you?” Dean asks cautiously because it had sounded like that but Cas doesn’t look happy.

“Dean, you don’t understand. I’ve been thinking about you constantly.” It sounds almost desperate. “I’ve tried so hard to limit it, to not get on your nerves or overwhelm you. But I see things that remind me of you everywhere!”

“All the little presents you bring from your trips,” Dean suddenly understands. “You didn’t want to call but you were still thinking about me.”

Cas closes his eyes for a second, looking chastised. “I wanted to call, Dean. All the time. But I also didn’t want to be clingy. And I really do have a stressful job, and quite often the only time I would be able to call is 2am in Kansas.”

“But you thought about me,” Dean focuses on that. 

“Every day. Every hour, probably.”

Dean laughs softly, Cas’ tendency to be literal about things more endearing than it should be. “Sounds kinda like you’re a little bit in love, too? Maybe?” he asks hopefully. 

A tiny smile steals onto Cas’ face. “To be honest, I’ve tried to avoid thinking about it until now. It was - what we had seemed so good, I didn’t want to destroy it by wanting too much.” Then Cas straightens up, listening to the airport announcer again. He grimaces. “That’s my flight being called.”

Dean nods and tries to keep the disappointment off of his face. “Okay. Guess you gotta go.”

Cas nods, too. “I have to, I fear.” Then he smiles a small timid smile. “It is my flight home, though. If I text you the gate and the time, would you maybe consider picking me up at the airport? If you have the time?”

“You’d want me to?” Dean asks, eyes wide. 

Cas nods. “It would be nice having someone there who looks forward to seeing me. And maybe to kissing me hello?”

Dean feels a wide smile stretching his face at the same time as warmth spreads inside him. “Hell yeah. I’m all for that. Text me the time and I’ll be there.”

“You’re sure it’s not too much?” Cas worries.

“I’m sure,” Dean says decisively. “But Cas?”

“Huh?” 

“Think you could think about the thing on the flight? Like, whether you’re maybe in love with me, too? And whether that means, we, y’know, could be something a little more official?”

“Dean?” And this time, Cas is smiling. 

“Yeah?”

“I’ve already called you my boyfriend when talking to my brother. So the answer is definitely yes.”

And if Dean thought he couldn’t smile any wider, he was wrong, because he totally can. “Awesome!” 

They both chuckle at Dean’s excited exclamation. 

Then Cas says, “We’ll talk about it when I’m home? What changes you need so that this works for you? So that  _ we _ work?”

Dean nods. “For you, too, though. I mean, I want you to feel loved. You need to tell me how to do that.”

“Well, telling me that you’re in love with me helped immensely,” Cas answers matter-of-factly, though his smile is fond. Then there is blaring from the speakers in the background again and Cas sighs. “They’re calling my row. I really need to go. I’ll see you in 8 hours or so?”

“I’ll be there. I can’t wait.” 

“Me neither. I’ll be home soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't know the five love languages and are interested, google a little, it's a good read. If you take nothing else from it then let it remind you that we don't all speak the same language when it comes to expressing love, and sometimes that leads to misunderstandings through no bad will on any side.
> 
> I love you all! Hope you enjoyed! <3


End file.
